Improved communication with clients? ERP does not do the job
06 August 2010
Do you speak your clients’ language? “That depends,” you say. “We speak English with clients in the US. If a client speaks Spanish, we also speak Spanish.” But that’s not exactly what I mean. I really mean to ask you something totally different. Apparently my opening question is not as clear as I thought. Clearly, I didn’t quite speak your language. If it possible to cause a misunderstanding within the first few lines of a simple blog, what could happen in commercial communication on complex products?
Different target groups, different ‘languages’
Many industrial companies wrestle with it: ‘How can we communicate clearly about our products and conditions?’ The problem originates in the very different target groups: the various departments that are involved in the buying process on a client’s side of things, but also the various departments involved with the sales process on your side of things, such as marketing, sales, engineering, production and service. They all have their own ‘language’. From extremely structured (think of the way a bill of materials is formulated for a production department), to unstructured and more qualitative (such as a sales rep who promotes the qualities of a product in a quotation).
Understanding each other
A company that would like to offer precisely the product that a client needs, and wants to deliver exactly according to what was offered, must therefore make sure that all departments can understand each other. It is a fiction to think that this can be achieved by all speaking the same language. For example, a client is not particularly interested in a product’s detailed bill of materials, while the production department can’t function without it. What is needed is a mechanism to make ‘smart’ translations. Making it possible for your sales rep to speak a client’s language with him, about his needs and the advantages of your products. And whereby an offer can be made to a client in his ‘language’. We need to state that these offers can be translated into specifications with which production or engineering can go to work, and that a correct, profitable sales price can be calculated.
Translation mechanism
The advantage of this kind of approach is that all target groups can keep on communicating in their own language. The translation mechanism, for example in the shape of a Guided Selling system or a sales configurator, automatically looks after translations behind the scenes. But would an ERP system not do the same job? Couldn’t that make sure of a seamless integration between sales and production? Well, it can, if you only make standard products and your clients don’t think it’s a problem that you only communicate on the level of technical specifications and numbers. Companies that manufacture complex, client-specific products, will not come out on top in any competitive struggle if they rely on ERP. Aberdeen Group, a renowned company in ICT analysis and research, makes a concrete suggestion: invest in ‘sales configuration’ and ‘proposal generation’ tools. It shows that companies that implement these kinds of software packages do better than their competition in terms of cycle time and quality of quotations and orders. Furthermore, they have a better insight into their key performance indicators for sales.
What are you going to do to be smarter and improve communications with clients?
Otto van der Tang is Managing Director at Sofon - supplier of sales support software. As Otto has a lot of contact with clients, he has a clear insight into how companies that deliver customer-specific products and services can realize improvements within their sales and quotation process.
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